Portfolio

Filmmaking

I have worked on a variety of social justice issues over the past years, but the issue of marriage equality for lesbians and gays has become a recurrent theme in my work.

In January 2010, I produced a re-enactment of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal district court challenge of California’s Proposition 8. Over 3,000 pages of court transcript, 60+ hours of testimony performed by professional actors.

Shortly after Proposition 8 passed in November 2008, I realized that most people who believe gays and lesbians should not have the right to marry have never actually met real gay people.

Working with POWER UP, I created a suite of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) profiling gay and lesbian couples and their children. These images, noticeably missing from the No on 8 campaign, have aired in all of California’s 58 counties since January 2009 after debuting during President Obama’s inauguration.

In 2005, I became a foster and then adoptive parent. I realized during the course of training and working with county social workers and child welfare professionals that I was extremely fortunate to live in California. The laws here make it relatively easy for gays and lesbians to serve as resource families for children in need and to create families.

With a patchwork of laws, the states are anything but united in what makes a family. I produced a documentary short entitled, Finding Family: Gay Adoption in the U.S., which premiered at the Frameline Film Festival in 2007, toured the festival circuit and then aired on PBS. Now that it has gained educational distribution, it is being used in university curricula and as a part of the Human Rights Campaign’s All Children - All Families initiative, which seeks to enhance LGBT cultural competence among child welfare professionals across the country.

I am currently producing a book series of the same title that profiles LGBT families and their paths to parenthood.

Writing

As with many writers, I have gravitated to topics where I find personal resonance. As a result, I can cover them with the unique authority of personal experience. I have been very fortunate pitching freelance pieces to local and national publications. I am proud to be a Contributing Editor at In These Times, a progressive monthly out of Chicago. Here are some samples of my work. CLICK ON IMAGES TO VIEW...

Legislated to Death * AUDIO *

January 2010 * BONUS *

Prop Hate and My Family

January 2009

Marriage Equality in Peril

November 2008

He Shoots, She Scores

June 2007

Defining Hate in the United States

May 2007

Outing is In Again

December 2006

In Loco Parentis: A Gay Page’s Experience

October 10, 2006

Blowing the Whistle on Diebold

August 2006

Curriculum Wars

July 2006

An Anti-Gay Easter

March 2006

I was interviewed on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered on February 17, 2004, days after my husband and I were married in San Francisco’s City Hall. Mayor Gavin

Newsom’s decision to instruct the County Clerk’s office to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples is largely seen as the opening shot in the California’s battle for marriage equality.

We had driven overnight on Valentines Day, arriving to San Francisco in the early morning to become one of the first wedded couples. Quite by luck, I found myself on the phone with the news show’s host describing the joyous chaos of the weekend.

San Francisco Scrambles to

Fulfill Marriage Requests

February 17, 2004